The Ultimate The Tower of London Quiz | World Sites

Answer: The White Tower

The building of the White Tower was ordered by King William I in 1078. Before that, since 1066, William had erected a temporary castle on the site. The White Tower was completed in around 1097 and was then the tallest building in London, standing 90 feet. It is the oldest surviving building in the Tower. For centuries the White Tower was an armoury. Between 1810 - 1815 arms were no longer manufactured at the Tower. Arms and armour were stored in the tower until the 1950's when many of the pieces were moved to museums around the country. Pieces connected to the Tower's history were kept and the removal of most of the collection allowed the people in charge to display the remaining pieces in a very effective way. The White Tower has some fascinating artefacts of war. Henry VIII's armour alone is worth a look. He was a BIG man! The exhibition in the White Tower has clearly been put together with a lot of thought and is one of the most interesting things in the Tower of London.
Now...some interesting facts about the other options (don't worry, I'll be brief). The Medieval Palace is the outer part of the Tower beside the Thames and was added by King Henry III in 1220. Traitor's Gate was added by King Edward I (Henry III's son) in the 13th century. It is a gate that leads out onto the river Thames and this is how traitors entered the castle by boat.
The Queen's House is the official residence of the Tower's governor and is right near the main entrance to the Tower.

Answer: Yes

The main changing of guard, the one that most people attend, takes place at Buckingham Palace (11.30am every day in the summer...go and see it when you're on your way to the Tower! I still love it and I've seen it a hundred times). There is another at Horse Guards which takes place at 1pm every day.

The changing of guard at the Tower of London takes place daily at midday on Tower Green (near the White Tower). There is another ceremony, specific to the Tower, which takes place every night. It's called the Ceremony of the Keys and takes place when one of the Yeoman Warders (a.k.a. 'Beefeaters', you'll recognise them as the ones in silly outfits! Don't upset them, though, they're loud and scary.) locks the gates of the Tower of London. A military escort ensures the keys are not stolen, a last post is sounded by a trumpeter and the keys are secured in the Queen's House.

The Ceremony of the Keys takes place every day at 9.30pm. If there's one thing we Londoners can do well it's pomp and circumstance and damn fine ceremonies! Makes my heart swell every time I see them.

Answer: King Henry VI

King Henry VI was murdered in the Tower of London in 1471 by the Duke of York's son during the War of the Roses. Henry is remembered every 21 May by Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. These colleges are (together with University of Caen in Normandy) are legacies Henry left behind when he died. Students and teachers of the colleges meet for a ceremony every year by the Wakefield Tower where Henry was killed. The Wakefield Tower is part of the Medieval Palace that we were discussing earlier and it has been refurbished to match its 13th century appearance. So it looks much the same now as it must have when Henry looked up at it as he died. Think about that as you walk past it...
King Charles I was publicly executed in 1649 outside Banqueting House for the crime of tyranny by the Parliamentarian army.
King William III died when his horse slipped on a mole hill in 1702.
King Henry IV died in 1413, probably of leprosy, in the Jerusalem Chamber in Westminster Abbey. He had always wanted to die on a crusade, but didn't get his wish.

Answer: Spring Equinox Celebration

62 rounds are fired at the Tower of London at 1pm on state occasions. Including the Queen's Accession Day (6th February), Coronation Day (2nd June) and Royal Birthday's (the Queen's on 21 April and the Duke of Edinburgh's on 10 June). Royal Salutes are also fired on the same days at Hyde Park at noon (41 rounds are fired there).

The salute at Hyde Park consists of 71 horses and six 13-pounder cannons and is quite a sight (and sound!). The Spring Equinox Celebration has little to do with the Tower, although it does take place on Tower Hill, right near the Tower.

It is a subdued pagan ceremony with modern day druids and takes place every year on the 21st March.

Answer: Because in 1585 the Duke of Northumberland committed suicide there

James I is believed to have made the mistake of linking the nickname to the death of the two young princes.

In 1674, during renovation work, two skeletons of young boys were found in the White Tower, but their identity has never been established.

Answer: The Crown Jewels

Yes, surprisingly the Crown Jewels can be found in the Jewel House. Not an inventive name, I grant you, but when the Tower has invented the name 'Beefeaters' you gotta give them a few mundane labels! Most of the Crown Jewels on display date from 1661 when a new set was made for King Charles II.

The originals were destroyed by parliament after King Charles I's execution and England's brief flirtation with a Commonwealth. After returning to our safe, comfortable position as a Kingdom Charles II had a new set of Crown Jewels made for his coronation.

In the collection you'll find many ornate and lavish pieces including The Sceptre with the Cross which contains the biggest cut diamond in the world, the First Star of Africa (530 carats). The Sceptre with the Cross was built in 1910 after King Edward VII was presented with the diamond. One of my favourite things to do in the Crown Jewels display is look around at all the paraphernalia, clothes, sceptres, orbs etc that the monarch must carry down that long aisle in Westminster Abbey for their coronation.

They must work out! In 1671 a man named 'Colonel Blood' tried to steal the Crown Jewels. He didn't succeed. And you'd be hard pushed to succeed these days. The doors and walls that you pass through to get to the display of the Crown Jewels are extremely thick. When the end of the world comes, I'm going to the Jewel House. Nothing could get in there!

Answer: A Military Training Academy

The Tower started out life as a castle with William I building a revolutionary type of castle (at the time, that is). It went on to become a Palace, still doing its bit as a fort. It continued to be all these things as it started churning out arms and money as its armoury and Royal Mint industry got off the ground. Largely the Tower has inspired fear in the hearts of the Kingdom by being the most imposing prison in the country. You don't get out of the Tower in a hurry, and mostly you didn't get out at all except when you were on your way to Tower Hill to be executed.

It wasn't until 1810/1815 that the Tower ceased production of arms and the Mint moved. The Tower has been a tourist attraction since Charles II's reign (1660 - 1685) when the Crown Jewels and the collection of armour at the Tower were first shown to the public.

The Tower of London has had many different guises in its past, but still remains an enduring symbol of England, and of London. And the joke 'you'll go to the Tower' (if you're bad) is still used to this day.

Answer: Seven

There is a block on Tower Green (near the White Tower) where executions were carried out. You can still see it today. It was considered a great honour to be executed here. Most were taken out to the jeering, cheering crowds at Tower Hill. Only seven people actually died here, including two of Henry VIII's six wives, Thomas More and Lady Jane Grey (who I'll talk more about later). London really is a ghoulish place, but there's nothing quite as affecting as standing opposite that wooden block where Queens died. On a similar note, the last public beheading in England was in 1747, one Lord Lovat, and the wooden block used in this execution is on display in the White Tower.

Answer: 1952

The infamous Kray twins were held in twin cells in the Tower in 1952, after failing to report for duty at the Waterloo barracks. Protocol dictated that they had to be held, albeit temporarily, in the nearest prison. This was the Tower, the Salt Tower to be more precise. Rudolph Hess was also held in the Tower in 1941.

He was held in the Queen's House, not in any of the more imposing prison cells. This was also only a temporary arrangement. Many, many people have been imprisoned in the Tower over the many, many years it has been standing. Walter Raleigh was imprisoned here between 1603 and 1616.

Many kings, queens and would-be monarchs were imprisoned here. Including Lady Jane Grey. King Edward VI (Henry VIII's son and heir) named Lady Jane Grey as his heir upon his death in 1553. Lady Jane Grey's cousin, and Edward's half-sister Mary, disagreed with this (she was in fact the legitimate heir, not Lady Jane Grey) and she imprisoned Lady Jane in the Tower and seized control of the country. Lady Jane Grey reigned for all of nine days.

She was executed on Tower Green in 1553. Just off Tower Green there is the building where Lady Jane was imprisoned. In the cell, you can see messages carved into the walls by the prisoners who were held there. Among them is the simple engraving 'Jane', the only legacy Lady Jane Grey left from her dramatically short reign. Reading these messages from people who must have known that only death awaited them sends a tingle up your spine.

Answer: The tower and kingdom will fall

This will almost certainly not happen since the birds' wings have been clipped. There are normally around seven ravens living at the Tower and they are cared for by a Yeoman guard called the Ravenmaster. Nobody is certain when the ravens first settled at the Tower of London but it has been a very long time. There is a memorial in the moat for birds who have died since the 1950s.

Not only ravens have lived at the Tower - there was a menagerie housed there until 1834. But the ravens continue to be the best symbol of the Tower of London.

The Tower of London is, without a doubt, my absolute favourite place to visit in London. If you go there make sure that you take a tour with one of the Beefeaters. They are mines of information, and seem to be unhealthily obsessed with the Tower's gruesome history. If you can, take a river tour of the Thames that goes past the Tower. It looks very imposing from the river. Walking around the Tower is like walking around history itself. Please go. And enjoy it.